


Bleached

by laureltreedaphne



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 06:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2571665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laureltreedaphne/pseuds/laureltreedaphne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy values the power of bleach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bleached

**Author's Note:**

> Migrating fic over from LiveJournal - this is from 2003. Written in 45 minutes for the contrelamontre "white" challenge.

Billy worries that his fascination with bleach is beginning to cross the line from endearingly odd quirk to frighteningly obsessive compulsion. 

Dom thinks he's insane, which he probably is, and teases him about it incessantly. Sean just laughs and says, "Even I don't clean that much, Bill." Viggo shrugs and leaves him to it, which Billy is exceedingly grateful for. It's not that he's worried about germs - after the places he's lived, and the people he's been around, it's kind of hard to worry about whether or not you're going to catch a cold from one of your mates. It's that, in a life where Billy finds himself spending most of his time covered with dirt and grime, it's nice to come home to something that is perfectly clean, dazzlingly white. 

Billy doesn't know what Elijah thinks about the crisp white sheets that line his bed, or the economy size containers of bleach that dwell under his kitchen counters, and for that he is also exceedingly grateful. Because Elijah is a disturbance. 

Elijah leaves smears of blue toothpaste on his fluffy white towels, leaves jelly fingerprints to linger on his sparkling counters for days, breaking up the whiteness, foreign and out of place. When Billy catches sight of Elijah spread out in his bed, arms and legs akimbo, mouth hanging slightly open, it just seems wrong. The white is ruined by Elijah's shock of dark hair against the pillow, by his skin, mottled with countless purple bruises, the results of falling down stairs, walking into makeup tables, being punched by Dom, being hit by the stuntmen's swords. His face is all right, the skin there is so pale and unblemished that Billy can hardly tell where the pillow ends and his face begins. But then his lips, pink and wet and inviting - well those are just unacceptable. Those ruin this whole white...theme that Billy has going on. 

When Elijah's awake, when his eyes are open, it's even more disturbing. Then, there is no chance of maintaining the illusion of whiteness - Elijah's eyes are too huge, too full of bright colors, they block everything else, even the white, out. People think Elijah's eyes are simply brilliantly blue, but Billy knows they're wrong - he knows Elijah's eyes hold shades of blue that haven't even been discovered yet, as well as variations of green, and even, if he looks hard enough, silver and gold. Despite all this though, Billy can't imagine not having Elijah around - when he's gone, the white seems too easy, as if there's no real challenge. 

Elijah comes to Billy's house one afternoon, after a day spent with Orlando and Dom, covered in paint - Billy's not even sure he wants to know what they were doing. There's a smudge of green behind his ear, a dot of yellow above his lip, lines of red trickling down his fingers. Elijah wraps his arms around Billy, rests his head on Billy's shoulder, and Billy realizes that the paint isn't even dry yet - his shirt, which a moment ago was perfectly starched and blank, has now become a rainbow of color. "We went paintballing, you should have come, Orlando nearly broke his leg trying to get away from Dom..." Elijah is saying into his neck, but Billy isn't really listening. 

"Lij," Billy cuts him off, Elijah looks up at him and Billy has to close his eyes against the blue and green and gold, "Do you always have to...tint everything?" he finishes weakly, and Elijah's pink lips quirk into a little smile.

"You're so weird sometimes," he says, then touches his lips to Billy's, and Billy can feel the yellow paint smudge against his own lips, can feel Elijah smearing red over his skin as he moves his hands under Billy's shirt and over Billy's back. And Billy knows that it doesn't matter that the shirt is ruined, that it will probably never be truly white again. 

Because Elijah gives his life color.


End file.
